A plague on all your houses

Emerging infectious diseases, earliest instances of human infection, 1940 to 2013
Show all1940-601960-801980-2000> 2000

ZIKA and Ebola are just two of the latest, better-known examples in a list of more than 300 new infectious diseases that have been identified since 1940. Some, like HIV/AIDS, have killed millions since infecting their first human victim. Others, like several highly lethal strains of avian influenza, have not yet mastered the task of spreading from one human to another. For now, such bugs are a danger in places where people are too close, too often, to the animals and insects known to carry them, such as hunting areas of African jungles or massive farms.